Movie Review: ANOMALISA

Charlie Kaufman’s enigmatic stop-motion drama

Charlie Kaufman is known for bending the possibilities of narrative in brilliantly imaginative ways—most famously with the Spike Jonze-directed, meta-literary “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation.” Collaborations with eclectic French director Michel Gondry yielded the greatest emo-sci-fi-break-up movie of all time, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (as well as the middling “Human Nature”).

In 2008, Kaufman broke out as an auteur, writing and directing his byzantine ode to artistic delusion, “Synecdoche, New York,” another theatrical warping of reality and fiction that, in retrospect, ascended to thematic heights of which Iñárritu’s “Birdman” could only aspire.

Once again, we find ourselves tenderly trapped in the confines of Kaufman’s dreamscape imagination with his sublime, stop-motion animated masterpiece, “Anomalisa."

Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) is a north of middle-age motivational speaker and author, spending the night in Cincinnati where he’s scheduled to headline a telecom convention. Stone leads a boring life: a married man with a son, whose objective success at something as banal as customer service leaves him apathetic and desperate for excitement and possibility.

Stone’s malaise anonymizes everyone around him. The skittish seatmate on his flight. The cab driver who pimps the Cincinnati chili (“L.A. chili? Fuggedaboutit.”). The voices of his wife and son, and his long-lost ex-girlfriend who still lives in Cincinnati are identical. Everyone Stone hears is a reflection of his discontented life, even the people he sees on television. (Veteran character actor Tom Noonan voices the dizzying role of “Everyone Else”.)

That is, everyone sounds alike until Stone meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh)—a mousy, mundane, phone bank team leader from Akron, who turns out not only to be a Michael Stone aficionado but, to his stirring delight, has an anomalous voice.  

Co-directed with “Morel Orel” claymation director Duke Johnson and based on Kaufman’s 2005 stage play of the same name, “Anomolisa” finds Kaufman largely abandoning his meta-character studies for something more delicate and straightforward, yet still inherently delusional.

On the surface, “Anomolisa” is just the story of a browbeaten man looking to get laid on a trip out of town. But the portrayal of Stone—his neuroses, his fear of irrelevance—feels like an elegy to a broken man’s slowly fading sanity. The faces and voices of his life converge into an opaque blur as he makes one last, desperate leap for happiness. That Lisa is so singular yet completely unremarkable serves to heighten Stone’s dystopia.

“Anomalisa” is weirdly poignant in its emotional details, right down to the awkward stop-motion sex scene, which is tender, frank, and demonstrates the attention to naturalism and detail invested in the characters, as well as the pain-staking animation process. The film is more “Greenberg” than “Team America,” and while there are moments of humor throughout, nothing about “Anomalisa” is played strictly for laughs.

Pitch-perfect performances from Thewlis, Leigh, and Noonan bring the story’s sophistication to life. Stone’s hangdog weariness, frustration, and occasional excitement are delivered with his trademark nasal British inflection. Leigh radiates sweet vulnerability and sexiness in a role that couldn’t be more of a polar opposite to “The Hateful Eight’s” Daisy Domergue, but which is perhaps even more worthy of Oscar buzz. Noonan’s deadpan delivery becomes miraculously differentiated among between the forty-plus characters (“everyone else”) that he gives voice to, from the mirthful to the morose.

Having seen “Anomalisa” last month amidst an avalanche of awards contenders, something about it stuck with me long after the others had faded. This place in Kaufman’s mind is a world unto its own, a comforting yet chilly interlude. And while “Tangerine” was the most groundbreaking film of 2015 (not that Oscar noticed), “Anomalisa” is the one that stands alone, like an enigmatic dream we wish we could fall back into.

“Anomalisa” concludes its run next week at Circle Cinema. See it while you can.

For more from Joe, check out his review of Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Where to Invade Next."